Christella parasitica(L.) H.Lév.

parasitic maiden fern

WFO wfo-0000151532 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Christella parasitica, photographed by chiuluan
fig. a chiuluan, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-04-03 / obs. 186021608

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

The specimen a real sheet, in a real collection

Herbarium
Smithsonian, US National Herbarium
Accession
US 1918434
Filed as
Christella parasitica (L.) H.Lév.
Det. by
Wagner, W. L., (BOT), Smithsonian Institution - National Museum of Natural History (UNITED STATES)
Collected
W. H. Wagner 1945-08-20
Origin
GU
The sheet
View the digitised specimen (CC0 1.0)

A real pressed plant, in a real collection, under the accession number above. Not an illustration of one. The holding institution does not serve this sheet’s image to third parties, so there is no photograph here. The record is real and the link goes to it. Where we hold no openly licensed sheet for a species this section is simply absent, and where a sheet never recorded who determined it, that field stays empty rather than being filled in. Roughly half of all herbarium sheets never recorded a determiner, which is ordinary.

Native range 46 botanical countries

Regions where Christella parasitica is native: DR Congo, St.Helena, Uganda, China South-Central, China Southeast, Hainan, Japan, Kazan-retto, Korea, Nansei-shoto, Ogasawara-shoto, Taiwan, Assam, Bangladesh, Bismarck Archipelago, Borneo, Cambodia, India, Jawa, Laos, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, Myanmar, New Guinea, Philippines, Solomon Is., Sri Lanka, Sulawesi, Sumatera, Thailand, Vietnam, New South Wales, Norfolk Is., Queensland, Caroline Is., Fiji, Marianas, Marquesas, New Caledonia, Pitcairn Is., Samoa, Tonga, Tuamotu, Tubuai Is., Vanuatu DR CongoUgandaChina South-CentralChina SoutheastHainanJapanTaiwanAssamBangladeshBismarck ArchipelagoBorneoCambodiaIndiaJawaLaosLesser Sunda Is.MalayaMalukuMyanmarNew GuineaPhilippinesSolomon Is.Sri LankaSulawesiSumateraThailandVietnamNew South WalesQueenslandFijiNew Caledonia St.HelenaKoreaNansei-shotoNorfolk Is.Caroline Is.MarianasMarquesasPitcairn Is.SamoaTongaTuamotuTubuai Is.Vanuatu
Native distribution of Christella parasitica, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Assam ASS ASIA-TROPICAL
Bangladesh BAN
Bismarck Archipelago BIS
Borneo BOR
Cambodia CBD
India IND
Jawa JAW
Laos LAO
Lesser Sunda Is. LSI
Malaya MLY
Maluku MOL
Myanmar MYA
New Guinea NWG
Philippines PHI
Solomon Is. SOL
Sri Lanka SRL
Sulawesi SUL
Sumatera SUM
Thailand THA
Vietnam VIE
Caroline Is. CRL PACIFIC
Fiji FIJ
Marianas MRN
Marquesas MRQ
New Caledonia NWC
Pitcairn Is. PIT
Samoa SAM
Tonga TON
Tuamotu TUA
Tubuai Is. TUB
Vanuatu VAN
China South-Central CHC ASIA-TEMPERATE
China Southeast CHS
Hainan CHH
Japan JAP
Kazan-retto KZN
Korea KOR
Nansei-shoto NNS
Ogasawara-shoto OGA
Taiwan TAI
DR Congo ZAI AFRICA
St.Helena STH
Uganda UGA
New South Wales NSW AUSTRALASIA
Norfolk Is. NFK
Queensland QLD

Not drawn on the map: Kazan-retto, Ogasawara-shoto. We hold no public-domain boundary for these regions, so they are listed rather than guessed at.

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 2,021 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 9.5 °C 12.5 °C 20.0 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 24.3 °C 29.4 °C 31.2 °C
Annual rainfall 1,058 mm 2,857 mm 4,359 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 83 mm 185 mm 775 mm

It is barely found anywhere that freezes. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 2,021 research-grade observations of Christella parasitica that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 86 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Aspidium adultum Wikstr.
  • Aspidium canescens Wall.
  • Aspidium hirsutulum Buch.-Ham.
  • Aspidium molle var. didymosorum (Parish ex Bedd.) Benth.
  • Aspidium nymphale Blume
  • Aspidium parasiticum (L.) Sw.
  • Aspidium parasiticum (L.) Christ
  • Aspidium parasiticum var. didymosorum (Parish ex Bedd.) Christ
  • Aspidium patens
  • Aspidium patens (Sw.) Blume
  • Aspidium procurrens Mett.
  • Aspidium solutum Wall.
  • Aspidium tectum Wall.
  • Asplenium gaudichaudii Mett.; Kuhn
  • Cyclosorus albociliatus (Copel.) Ching
  • Cyclosorus attenuatus Ching
  • Cyclosorus aureoglandulosus Ching & K.H.Shing
  • Cyclosorus benguetensis Copel.
  • Cyclosorus brevipes Ching
  • Cyclosorus chengii Ching ex K.H.Shing & J.F.Cheng
  • Cyclosorus damingshanensis Ching
  • Cyclosorus didymosorus (C.S.P.Parish ex Bedd.) B.K.Nayar & S.Kaur
  • Cyclosorus excelsior Ching & K.H.Shing
  • Cyclosorus griffithianus (Fée) Panigrahi

and 62 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. USDA PLANTS Database. common name, checklist symbol THPA4. public domain. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.